A Chronic Cough
At all the evening concerts, the King played the flute. Once he played a new composition of his own, which contained a faulty passage. Quantz, on hearing it, coughed significantly. Frederick understood the meaning of it, but said nothing. The next day he asked one of the other musicians his opinion of the passage. The latter pointed out the mistake. The King corrected it at once, saying:
“We must not let Quantz get a chronic cough.”